


Holiday's at Home

by NeverBackDown001



Category: NCIS
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Holidays, Laughter, Light Angst, Meeting the Parents, Road Trips, Tags Are Fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:26:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29134773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverBackDown001/pseuds/NeverBackDown001
Summary: Going home for Thanksgiving with Nick in tow, for the first time together, Ellie remembers all her past boyfriends and wonder if this time, things will be different.
Relationships: Ellie Bishop & Nick Torres, Ellie Bishop/Nick Torres
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	Holiday's at Home

Twenty hours is a long way to go in Ellies tiny little blue pickup. She loved it though, she had had it since she was in college and it never ceased to fail her. All of the baggage, well most of it was strapped under bungey cords and an old crusty tarp, it would stay, she had made this trip way more than once, the first time she had really driven all the way and back was five years ago, when she thought her life was over. 

Her old life was over. She divorced Jake and started again. 

Then Qasim had come into her life and picked up those hurt pieces that Jake and other boyfriends had left behind. For a few months she allowed herself to feel like nothing bad could happen. Qasim was her fresh start and Ellie was all in for it. 

But it all was lost much too soon. The sight of his body laying in that damp, cold hospital room with every and their sympathetic gaze turned towards her because she had lost him. He was gone and she was left in the ashes of his death. 

Ellie pretty much gave up after that. Jake had hurt yes, but seeing Qasim dead, having to clean out his apartment, meeting his family for the first time, that hurt more. She kept the engagement ring he had given her in her dresser, always, a reminder of what she could have had and didn't get. 

Then it was Nick. Handsome, funny, all round good guy Nick who she was sure was just a co-worker, a colleague that she just had a simple little attraction too. What was with her and liking co-workers? 

He was her partner in crime, when Gibbs had first paired them she thought he was an ignorant, arrogant ass-hat, but he had proven that first impression wrong and showed her that he did have a heart. Deep down of course, hidden behind a wall of stupidity, bravado and a need to tell her she's this giant nerd at least four times a day. Ellie really didn't know why he had to do that because it really made her mad and she had sucker-punched him one time when he shouted nerd as she read off the statistical facts of crime rate. 

For two years he was her partner, her best friend and closest co-worker in the office. Well, other than Abby and Jimmy, then Kasie of course. McGee was up there too and it made Ellie think on if she really was a nerd and all of her best friends where too. Ellie couldn't help it much, she worked at the NSA for years, and she had been one of the youngest to join and youngest employee's there for a while. While working there, people had written her off, she was just an analyst they said, nothing else, nothing more. And that pissed her off. So when she joined NCIS, she was damn ready to prove them wrong. 

NCIS had been good and bad for Ellie. 

The first bad came to the fact she had killed people. Terrible evil monsters who deserved nothing more than to be stuck in a cell for the rest of their lives, but not death. And when she struck him right through the heart, a part of that bullet ricocheted and hit her a little. 

The second was that she truly saw how cruel Jake's heart was. They had drifted not long after her arrival as a special agent, but she saw his ugly, mentally abusive side. Tricking her into believing it was all her fault that their marriage was shifting and crumbling. Tricking her into believing that her life was all great because of him. And when he cheated, maybe a chunk of her, a small chunk was relieved that there was a chance she could rid of him. 

She did. 

The third was the pain. Pain of seeing people in pain. Pain of having to lose and win some cases. Ellie loved her job, but there where parts of it that she despised. 

"Stop thinking so loudly or you'll drive into a semi." Nick nudged her shoulder as they cruised in a smooth, steady pace down the highway. It shook Ellie out of her thoughts. 

She glanced over at her loving boyfriend and smirked. "Can't help it, driving makes me think. And driving home, makes me think more." 

Nick laughs. "You haven't driven home like this in what...four years?" 

Ellie shakes her head and keeps her eyes on the road in front of her. "Three. I usually fly, but a drive is always good." 

Nick shakes his head and drums his fingers on the headphones around his neck, a small smile playing on his lips. "McGee told me that you run home a lot, didn't really want to know why though." 

Ellie narrows her eyes. McGee would know of course, she had run when Jake had cheated, when Qasim had died and when things changed drastically. Home was her soul and sometimes she needed to know that it was there. Home was her heart because when she was in a dangerous situation, she thought of her parents, her brothers, nieces and nephews who looked up to cool Aunt Ellie and wanted to be just like her. Most chances that she got, she went home. 

"McGee talks a lot. But yeah, I run. It's hard to...stay there with all the pain." She let out a difficult breath, keeping a strong grip on her steering wheel, stealing glances at Nick as they kept that steady pace down the highway, they where somewhere in Tennesee, close to Nashville maybe, but still in the low rolling green and gold hills, spreading out in every direction. 

"I don't think I've been home since college." Nick lets out a half amused laugh. "Course, Lucia and Amanda live in Norfolk now and my mama visits, but I never go home." 

She frowns. She knew that Nick hated going home because of the painful memories, growing up without a dad, having to work his ass off in high-school, his mom working two jobs and older sister who had joined the Marines sending home money for him to go to school. But she didn't know he never went back. 

"Oh, didn't know." 

Nick shrugs like it's nothing. "My mom moved to Charlotte a couple of years ago and I visited her for my cousins graduation six months ago, I call her once a week. But I could never go to Miami." 

Ellie understood that. Sometimes the memories weren't as painful when you where far away from them. 

They kept driving, turned on the radio and listened to a couple of podcasts that Ellie started to despise but Nick kept listening intently, a smile growing on his features and Ellie couldn't take that from him. She loved his smile. it made her smile too. She had fallen in love with that charming charismatic grin and the dimples that dug into his cheeks and dark eyes full of humor and life. 

Ellie liked the drive, even when Nick fell asleep, his arms wrapped around the seat-belt like he was clutching a pillow or blanket. The bouncing hills, forests sloping downwards, the sun hitting the pines and foliage that was going to reddish oranges and golds. She could smell the exhaust from the slightly cracked window, the smell of forest and nature enticing her, that small smile playing on her lips. She glanced over at her sleeping boyfriend, they still had hours and hours to go, but she couldn't help but notice how adorable he looks, his nose twitching and hands curled around the seat-belt. As much as he tried to be macho macho, he was a huge softie underneath his thick exterior. 

Part of Ellie, well, a large, uncomfortable part, didn't want to have another shot at love. She had had so much unruly bad luck, and she blamed herself for it all. If she lost Nick, that would be the final straw. She would never be able to love or breath the same again. 

Two months ago, when they had first gotten together, she thought that the other shoe would drop. Ellie had almost died twice in a week, and both times where revolving around explosives. Luckily she had made it out alive, all because of the handsome guy asleep next to her. She remembered when he brought her home, after the jail cell incident, it was on Gibb's orders to make sure she was safe, but Ellie had a hunch he would have done so anyways. Then he had kissed her, pinned her against the door frame of the tiny little townhouse she lived in and pretty much set her heart on fire. Every day since then, the fire was still raging, some days not as hot, when they had a rough case or fought, but sti;; burning so brightly. 

How had she gotten that lucky? To get a guy like Nick who was gentle and rough, sweet but sarcastic? There was no way in hell that Ellie Bishop had scored him. 

But she did. 

And she was proud. 

\---------------------------------------------------

Nick had woken up and taken the wheel, the sky was dimming and he was pretty much ordering her to sleep, because he didn't want her to drive into a semi and when she drove, Ellie was always in deep thought. Always. It was kind of cute, her nose scrunched up and eyebrows sloped downwards, almost like she was angry. Angry at everything and for a scary moment, he was husking on the idea that she was mad at him. 

Nick could never tell what she was feeling. Usually it was hungry, she was always, always hungry. He didn't understand it. She was tiny, five four and a hundred thirty soaking wet, but still had the appetite of a wild hippo. Always snacking, and when she had her floor time, which he found childish, she had the same snack, always the cinnamon suagar puffs that made his stomach lurch uncomfortably. 

He was pretty sure she spent more on food than clothes and for a girl, that was saying something. 

They where somewhere outside of Nashville, closer to Arkansas than the sprawling city behind them, he had never liked road trips, they took too long and he simply wanted to get there. But this time he told himself he was going to enjoy it because he was with Ellie and suprisingly he was enjoying it. The way she smiled when he smiled and he was almost positive that she was watching him when he slept. 

When she slept, Ellie was sprawled out like a starfish, legs stretched out all the way,her arms flailed behind her and snoring softly. Nick smiled, grabbing her hand, and pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles as he drove in the dark night, the warmth of her hand keeping him awake and he tuned the radio to some Spanish beats softly, so that she could sleep in peace. 

He could see why she liked the drive, it was quite nice, the rolling yellow and green hills, the smell of forest and exhaust was strangely calming and the open road ahead somewhat pleasing. But he also was aware of why she drove home. Sure she flew in the winter and when things where good, but he heard the story of when she drove home five-ish years ago, and Gibbs had to drag her back to D.C. 

Ellie never mentioned Jake, he wouldn't have even guessed that she had been married once until McGee said something about divorce and Ellie just grumbled under her breath, that was his first year on the team. It took him a while to even figure out who she was married too and why they divorced. Maybe Nick was a little dense, that was why it took so long. 

When she said something about her ex-husband, an analyst at the NSA just like her, had cheated on her, a part of him had been soley enraged. How could someone ever have Ellie and think to cheat on her? McGee then later told him the story of when she found out and ran home. Ran to the place where she probably felt the safest. But still, how could someone ever have Ellie and just lose her like that? It was unfathomable to him. But then again he had been in love with her for the past four years, almost lost her a dozen times, and every time he had clung a little tighter. Especially with Merriwether and the jail cell. 

The thought, the mere thought of losing his best-friend, the love of his life was honestly more frightening than any undercover op he had done or killer he hunted down. 

So that night, on Gibbs orders he had taken Ellie home and then he kissed her. Nick wasn't sure what had come over him really, but this was his only chance and he kissed her. Part of him was sure she was going to shove him away and slap him, then they'd never be able to look at each other again. She had kissed him back, opening the door with her free hand, and too her room where he would wake up in the next day, sure that this was all a dream and he had died in an explosion or knocked his head too hard. 

He really did score. 

\----

Ellie was just outside of her tiny hometown, her hands gripping the wheel, trying to sort out her growing nerves. This was her home and she didn't just bring anyone here. Ellie hadn't been able to bring Qasim and Jake always came up with excuses to come here with her. But Nick, he had been all in. 

When she had called her brothers and told them she was bringing someone, she could hear the overprotectiveness in their tones. They then pestered her with questions and ordering her to tell them who he was. All she had said was that they had met him, wanting to see the look of surprise on their faces when they saw Nick. 

"When you told me that you grew up in a tiny town, I didn't expect the tiny town to be like this." Nick chuckled as he looked intently out the window. 

Ellie laughs. "Yeah, see that apple tree?" She pointed to the front yard of an old friend where an aging tree stood. "That's where I had my first kiss and where I broke my ankle. Same day too." 

Nick smiles wanley. "How old where you?" 

"Twelve. Harry Paruple, and when my brothers found out, they beat him to a pulp." Ellie smiles at the memory. 

"Twelve, I didn't have mine until I was thirteen." Nick leans his head out of the open window a little, the smell of the little diner enticing him a little. 

"And that shed," Ellie points to a shed that was notorious for finding couple in there. "Lost my virginity in that shed, junior year, that wasn't fun." She grits her teeth as Nick bursts out laughing. She narrows her eyes and glares at him. The memory wasn't the best. 

"You're telling me you lost your virginity in an abandoned tool shed?" 

Ellie nods and waits for him to stop laughing.

"Yeah, highschool was a roller coaster, and my brothers...well....let's just say that guy wasn't so lucky either." 

Nick raises an eyebrow. "Your brothers are that over-protective?" 

She nods. "You remember when they broke into my house a few years ago and where asking around to find out who my boyfriend was?! God that was unpleasant. Trust me, they'll bombard you with every question they can think of when they see you. They hate every boyfriend I've ever had. So if they hate you, trust me, you're not the first." Ellie smiled at her boyfriend, grabbing his hand as she turned to the outskirts of her town. The farm she had grown up on with fifty cows, chickens, sheep and horses, where she had shot her first gun, killed her first animal and a hundred other things most girls don't do in their teenage years. Most of the girls in town still couldn't lift an ax. 

"I've never seen you this....happy." Nick murmurs, his grip on her hand tightening a little as she turned onto their lane. 

Ellie gives him a grin. "I've never been this happy. Not with anyone." 

It's true. She's never been this happy, this excited for a guy to meet her family, proud to show him off because she was proud of him. She really was. Every morning, well almost every morning she had woken up next to him was a good day. 

She turned into the lot of her house, the two story farmhouse with the attic they turned into a play area when they where young, the two barns and several pastures. Today was Thanksgiving so there was at least six other cars in the dirt driveway, of cousins, her brothers and parents. She saw her brother George's matching blue pickup, the only thing different was that his was a little more beat up. 

"This is it, childhood home." Ellie got out of her pickup, looking at the house she loved more than anything, well almost anything. 

They walked up to the door, his hand in hers as she rung the doorbell, she could hear her brother's scrambling to the door, their hushed voices and the scuffling of feet on the hardwood floors. Ellie rolled her eyes, they where so stupid. They shoved the door open, all crammed into the doorframe, Georgie, Jonny, and Robbie. 

"Ellie!" Their voices where full of happiness, then adverting their eyes to the guy she was holding hands with, a mingled mix of shock and surprise written on their faces. 

"This is Nick." She nodded her head to him. "My boyfriend." 

Ellie thought her brothers where going to die from shock, which was weird because she had brought home an odd assortment of boyfriends. 

George is the first to say something before extending a hand. "I remember you. You where very insistent on saying Ellie wasn't your type, like not at all."

Nick went red in the face as Ellie glared at him. Really? 

"Uhh, yeah that was a lie." He mumbled under a chuckle. 

"Yeah!" Robbie said, eyebrows shooting up. "You said she was too nerdy." 

"And-" Jonny cut in. "That she was in love with the tall international guy with the sharp ass jawline." 

"Want to tell me something there, Nick?" Ellie glared at her boyfriend who was shuffling his feet awkwardly and looking really embarrassed. But it was funny, even the idea of her being in love with Reeves, she had been, but as a brother. 

"No, no, I'm good." Nick smiled a little forcefully as they walked inside, her brothers glaring at the two of them. Ellie found it amusing that there was a point that Nick had thought she was too nerdy and not his type. Funny how quickly things had changed.

They headed inside, where her parents crushed her into hugs and shook Nick's hand, all of her nieces and nephews already begging for her stories that she told when she came home, telling them of their missions(dumbed down of course), making them funny. 

"Is this your boyfriend?" George Junior, a seven year old boy, wrinkled his nose in Nick's direction as he hugged Ellie. 

Ellie let out a slight guffaw. "Uh yeah George, is that okay?" 

Georgie shook his feather mop of brownish blonde hair, he looked exactly like her brother. "My dad says whenever you bring a guy home I'm supposed to protect you." 

This gives Ellie a genuine smile. She leans down and shakes his hair with a free hand. "Don't worry George, I can handle myself. And his name is Nick, I expect you to be nice, your dad also taught you manners." 

She gives him a kiss on the cheek, before nudging Nick with her side. 

"Am I really chop liver already?" He muttered as they trudged up the stairs to Ellie's childhood room. 

"Pretty much. Being the baby of the family means your always the baby there Nick. Even if I carry a gun and is well aware of just exactly where to punch." She opens the door to her room, the walls still painted that chipped olive green, the queen bed pushed in the corner, all her sports and nerdy posters still plastered to the wall and the bin of stuffed animals she had always kept untouched hanging in the netted sling by the cracked TV. 

"So this is Ellie Bishops room, huh? How many guys have you brought here and what number am i?" Nick set his stuff on the bed. 

"You're number a hundred and four." 

"Haha, very funny." Nick wrapped his arms around his waist, thankful they had closed the door because he was sure that any moment, a brother, cousin, niece or nephew would come bursting in and tear them apart. 

"Oh I'm very, very serious. Just because I was the resident nerd in highs chool didn't mean that I didn't bring guys home." 

Nick goes a little red, Ellie cocks her head. He can't be jealous of the guys she brought home over a decade ago? That'd be stupid because all of those guys where either drop outs or in jail. She wasn't jealous of his previous girlfriends because of the word previous. She was his now. And he was hers. 

"Don't be jealous there Torres," Her voice is jaunting, tone teasing. "Pretty sure most of them are locked up. I did say I date the troubled kids." She leans up and kisses his cheek. His face goes from red to pink, his ears tinted and his eyes dark, but they where brighter than any city Ellie had been too. 

"Do I count as one, then?" 

Ellie smiles as she kisses him. "Sure there you big softie. Sure." 

\-----

Thanksgiving dinner was a little hectic. Her nieces and nephews begging for stories, pulling on her leg and wanting to see her badge like fifty times. The two living roomed TV'd had two football games playing on either screen, one college, one pro. 

"C'mon Auntie Ellie, you're supposed to tell us stories." Her eight year old niece, Esmeralda, Esie, begged, her big green eyes pleading for one of Aunt Ellie's super-fun stories. Nick smiled as he sat on the arm of the chair, looking at Esmeralda and her. 

"Fine." Ellie put her hands up in surrender. "I'll tell a story, but only if you and your brothers promise to eat all your food and don't ask for desert ten times." 

They all nodded, all of them, there was five, aging from ten to four, sitting at her feet. 

"Well, it was Christmas time, about five years ago, when your auntie was still with your mean old uncle Jake." Ellie says and all of them wrinkle their nose, knowing of the stories of mean old uncle Jake. "All of these kids where getting really sick, and they had to go to the hospital. They where kids of men and woman who fight for our country, and they got sick, and could have gotten hurt if me, my friends Gibbs, Tony and Timmy didn't help them." 

George Junior frowned. "Isn't Timmy the one guy with the big brain. And Tony the funny one?" 

"Yeah, but if you don't be quiet, you won't hear how we helped those kids." They all shut up effectively. 

"Well, we did everything we could for these kids and it was Christmas time so we wanted them to get home in time to open their presents. So we talked to people and we got information. Timmy and Tony where stuck, we didn't know what to do. But then, your amazing Aunt Ellie got an idea." 

Nick laughs from behind her. Ellie knew what he was thinking. That she was putting the attention on herself. She would never tell the kids the true version of the story, just gave them a rough background. 

"So, we did everything we could for those little ones, we tracked down the bad guys and we thought we could go home early, but it turns out, there where more kids getting sick because bad, bad people, thought it would be funny to watch them get hurt." 

The youngest of her nieces and nephews, Kade, wrinkled his nose like he smelled something bad and said. "Why do they think it's funny?" 

Ellie shrugged, but knowing the answer completely. "I don't know. But we managed to get the bad guys right before Christmas and all of the kids got better." 

All of her nieces and nephews stared up at their super-fun aunt in wonder. Sure she had better stories, but this one was cool because she had saved a bunch of kids before thy could get really hurt. Nick looked at Ellie, a slight jolt running in his chest, maybe because she was so good with kids and he liked that. He liked that because for the first time with any of his girlfriends, he could envision a real, realistic, near future. 

Dinner was called soon after, Ellie cut the turkey, winking at Nick afterwards, covered in turkey sauce. 

"So." Barbra, said as they ate. "How did you two meet?" 

"Mom, this is the Nick Torres I told you about. We uh, work together at NCIS," 

"Okay." George said through a mouthful of food. "But how'd you two get together then?" His voice was teasing, taunting and curious. All of her brothers turned their attention to Nick and Ellie. 

Ellie hesitated, she never told them about the jail cells or the plane because that was just dumb. But she had to tell them now, it had been months since then. 

"Mom." Ellie set down her fork. "Before you freak out, I'm alive. This was three months ago and....well....I almost got onto a plane, rigged to explode, after being kidnapped by a drug-king con man." 

Everyone's jaw dropped a little and Nick smirked to himself. 

"YOU WHAT?" Barbra shrieked, her fork clattering on the plate. 

"It's fine mom, I got off the plane. It was like a bad reboot of FRIENDS really." 

George chuckled, but not amused. "So that's how you two got together? A plane rigged to explode?" 

Ellie shook her head. "I mean that was a trigger but no. A week later, me and Nick where chasing a lead on smuggled weapons in Virginia. We came up to this old refurbished sherifs house and our crooks well, trapped us in these jail cells. I managed to get the door open, only to realize it had trigger a pressure plate....bomb....so I kinda had to stand on the plate or we would all blow." 

Everyone dropped their forks, and Barbra was not having it. 

"Two bombs in a week!" 

Ellie nodded. "Yeah....sorta." 

Nick just gripped her hand under the table and smiled at Ellie reassuringly. 

"How many times a week do you almost die?" Rob demanded. 

Before Ellie could answer, Nick cut in. "Well, a lot. But that's the job. I spent eight years bouncing around the world being deep undercover, all while she was crunching numbers at the NSA." 

Ellie raised an eyebrow. "On my third day I wrote a spyware paper and I got an award." 

"Okay whatever. But my point is, I've been on her team for a few years and I got to tell you, she's saved my life a few good times. And the lives of countless others." 

George leaned foward, his eyes trained on Nick dangerously. "Give me one then." 

Nick hesitated. "Well this guy threw this girl into a lake and she couldn't swim and was half dead so your sister dived in, saved her and pretty much brought the woman back to life." 

Barbra glared at the two of them. "I thought I was being leinent, allowing you to go to NCIS, I thought the NSA was bad enough but this! Ellie, do you ever think?" 

Ellie laughed. "Mom, this is our dream. I was never happy at the NSA. If I stayed there, you know what would have happened? I would have stayed married to Jake, probably had a kid by now and fake being happy. While at NCIS, I got to spend time in the Middle East ma, on a couple of navy ships and even on a sub rigged to blow." 

Everyone at the table was quiet. 

"Trust me ma'am, there is no one better out there, as partners, we have each other's back in the field and I've only been shot and ran over once during my time here, with El as my partner." 

Barbra seemed to feel a little more relaxed as he said this. Ellie gripped his hand tightly, thankful for that. 

She was thankful for a lot, but Nick, she was more thankful for him than anything she had ever had in her life. 

:}


End file.
